The Art of Animal Cell Culture for Virus Isolation

In virology, cell culture usually refers to the in vitro growth and manipulation of cells from a tissue obtained from a multicellular organism. The term “cell culture” is often used interchangeably with “tissue culture”. Cell culture remains integral with virology, as viruses are obligate intracellular parasites that require replication within a living cell to produce copies of themselves (i.e., to form progeny virions). Both animal and plant cells are propagated in cell cultures. The only other practical alternatives to cell culture are to propagate the viruses in susceptible animal or plant hosts. This review covers only cell culture for animal viruses. Since the literal meaning of tissue culture is the culturing of tissue pieces, i.e. explant culture, the term “cell culture” is used in this review instead of “tissue culture”.